Large-scale networked systems are commonplace platforms employed in a variety of settings for running applications and maintaining data for business and operational functions. For instance, a data center (e.g., physical cloud computing infrastructure) may provide a variety of services (e.g., web applications, email services, search engine services, etc.) for a plurality of customers simultaneously. These large-scale networked systems typically include a large number of resources distributed throughout the data center, in which each resource resembles a physical machine or a virtual machine running on a physical host. When the data center hosts multiple tenants (e.g., customer programs), these resources are optimally allocated from the same data center to the different tenants.
Presently, the implementation of connections between endpoints of remote networks is rooted in physical connectivity. Yet, there is an emerging trend toward virtualizing connectivity. In one instance, virtualizing connectivity involves creating an ad hoc association among endpoints in order for them to buffer applications from possible irregularities of the underlying physical networks. Such physical network irregularities may break down a connection between endpoints for certain applications.
By way of example, network address translation (NAT), which delivers data packets to a target endpoint carrying a source IP address that is not the actual identifier of the origination endpoint but a conversion fabricated by an intermediary mechanism, will impair two-way traffic between the target and origination endpoints for peer-to-peer applications. That is, using the supplemental technology to convert or translate data packets destroys knowledge of the originating endpoint, as well as the subnet relationship between the endpoints or the peer-to-peer semantics. This destruction of the peer-to-peer semantics may cause failures within certain service applications, such as video-conferencing software. Because it is problematic to complete transactions over networks in which the target endpoint must separately attain knowledge of the actual identifier of the origination endpoint, technology that establishes a robust communication link that is absent translation mechanisms would be advantageous.